Ari Saarto

lives and works in Helsinki, Finland

"TOPOGRAPHY OF MURDER shows murder and execution sites of the Finnish Civil War of 1918: railway yards and woods, ditches and roadsides, gravel pits. The unmapped grey area of war - sites of illegal killings. The total number of losses of both sides stays forever unclear, but it is roughly estimated between 25000 and 30000. The figure includes people who died at the battleground, but it is mainly result of executions and illnesses, which prevailed also among the maybe first concentration camps in Europe.
Hate and terror leave long tracks everywhere.
- February 19th, 2003 - ARI SAARTO

1. Asikkala: The memorial plague of Alarik Viljasalo, who was executed with two other Red prisoners in the morning of April 26th, 1918.
2. Tampere: A storehouse – a temporary prison – at the Tampere Railway Station. Execution site of 60 or 70 Russian prisoners before May 1st, 1918. Civilians followed the shooting from a nearby bridge.
3. Lappeenranta: The execution site of Red Guardist Juosi Musto,shot April 23rd, 1918. His brother escaped running up the pit wall."